da bwin： A round-up of the second day’s play of the first-round matches of the Ranji Trophy Super League 2009-10
da betway： Cricinfo staff04-Nov-2009Group B
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After Manish Pandey on day one, it was the turn of another youngster, Abhmanyu Mithun, to shine in the Karnataka-Uttar Pradesh match in Meerut. Pandey failed to add to his overnight 194, kick-starting a collapse that took Karnataka from 372 for 5 to 405 all out, but Mithun claimed a five-for on debut to put Karnataka within two wickets of a first-innings lead, and another good bowling effort of an outright win.Shalabh Srivastava took three of the Karnataka wickets to fall this morning, including Pandey’s. Bhuvneshwar Kumar managed the other two. The decisive spell of the day, though, came from the 20-year-old right-arm medium-pacer Mithun, who dismissed Tanmay Srivastava and Mohammad Kaif in the same over. Kaif scored a three-ball duck. Mithun peppered the UP batsmen with bouncers, and they found his pace and ability to get the ball to jump from a length hard to handle. At 157 for 8, Amir Khan and Praveen Gupta then applied themselves and took UP to stumps without further damage. They still need 42 to avoid the follow-on, and are facing an uphill struggle to draw the match with two days to go.
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Shikhar Dhawan scored his maiden first-class double-century as Delhi continued to pile on the runs against a weakened Baroda attack. Already missing Irfan Pathan, Baroda had to do without the services of Salim Veragi, their opening bowler who was called twice for a suspect action. To add to Baroda’s woes, left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar was also no-balled for his action, increasing the burden on Yusuf Pathan, who sent down a mammoth 46.4 overs.Resuming on his overnight 122, Dhawan shared two fruitful partnerships with Mayank Tehlan and Yogesh Nagar. After Delhi lost a well-settled Rajat Bhatia in just the second over of the day, Dhawan found a good partner in Tehlan. The two added 119 for the fourth wicket. Dhawan then added 73 with Nagar, and finally fell with the score at 500. His 224 included 23 fours and two sixes. Delhi lost the next five wickets for 91. In reply the Baroda openers, Connor Williams and Satyajit Parab, saw out the always-uncomfortable spell of nine overs before stumps without loss.
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Abhishek Jhunjhunwala made a welcome return to the official fold, and along with his friend and co-mainstay of Bengal batting two years ago, Manoj Tiwary, took his team to a big first-innings lead over Maharashtra. In reply to Maharashtra’s 179, Bengal started the day at 52 for 2 but lost Wriddhiman Saha early. But even as wickets kept falling at regular intervals, Tiwary took Bengal past Maharashtra’s total.After Tiwary’s fall, Jhunjhunwala batted aggressively, and despite little contribution from the tail took Bengal’s total over 300. The last four wickets added 104 runs, but only 21 of those came from the tailenders. Jhunjhunwala was the last man out, falling five short of his century. Maharashtra got off to a steady start in their second innings, but still had a long way to go to salvage one point from the match.Group A
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Mumbai and Punjab were locked in an interesting fight for first-innings ascendancy in Chandigarh. Having restricted Punjab to 259, Mumbai rode on Sahil Kukreja’s 90, but their three other big names failed to get going. A fighting half-century from Abhishek Nayar took Mumbai close to the mark, but they were still 15 runs short with three wickets in hand.It was Love Ablish’s opening burst that ripped through the vaunted Mumbai line-up. The intimidating top-order trio of Wasim Jaffer, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma were back in the pavilion with the score at 65; Jaffer inside-edged an indipper onto the stumps, Rahane nicked an outswinger to the keeper and Rohit edged a wide one to gully. Kukreja and Nayar then added 115 for the fourth wicket, but Kukreja’s wicket – again to Ablish – started a regular loss of wickets. The next three fell for 48 runs, including Nayar, and gave Punjab a look-in. Omkar Khanvilkar and Ramesh Powar, though, played the day out cautiously, adding an unbeaten 16 runs in 11.4 overs and setting up a crucial first hour of play on the third day.
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Tamil Nadu found an unlikely bowling hero at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi: Abhinav Mukund had bowled only two overs in first-class cricket before today, but took three wickets for five runs to dramatically end Railways’ innings. Railways started the day at 242 for 4, and reached 274 without any further loss but then the collapse started. C Ganapathy removed Sanjib Sanyal and Mahesh Rawat in two deliveries before Mukund got into the action. Sanjay Bangar, who started the day on 111, was left stranded on 163. Mukund will be on a hat-trick in the second innings: he dismissed Nos 10 and 11 off consecutive deliveries.Mukund’s day with the bat wasn’t as great, as he was run out for a duck in the first over. M Vijay, though, held the Tamil Nadu batting together, finishing the day on an unbeaten and patient 65. Along with Arun Karthik he added 83 quick runs for the second wicket in what was among the best passages of play in the day for Tamil Nadu, but Karthik missed his fifty by three runs. S Badrinath gave Vijay good company and was unbeaten on 33, which included a couple of straight sixes off Murali Kartik. 192 (Behera 78) by 82 runs
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Gujarat’s pace bowlers shared two wickets apiece to bowl Orissa out for 192, securing a healthy first-innings lead of 78. In the first session, Gujarat could add only 43 to their overnight 237 for 7.Siddharth Trivedi took out SS Das in the first over, starting a slide that Orissa would never really recover from. Debutant Mehul Patel and Ashraf Makda then dealt the top order a blow each. Brief resistance came from Niranjan Behera and Pravanjan Mullick, who added 55 for the fifth wicket to take the score to 100. Once Trivedi dismissed Mullick another slide started, reducing Orissa to 135 for 7. A 56-run eighth-wicket stand between Behera and Debasis Mohanty never threatened the first-innings lead, but made sure Gujarat would have to work hard for an outright win. Behera fell to the legspin of Timil Patel for 78.
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MP Arjun got his first first-class half-century, and his valuable runs down the order took Hyderabad to a fighting total. In reply Himachal recovered from a ditch of their own through an unbeaten 91-run fourth-wicket stand between Paras Dogra and Ajay Mannu.Hyderabad began the day at 237 for 6, but lost overnight half-centurion Abhinav Kumar for an addition of 10 runs to that score. Arjun then added 31 and 44 for eighth and ninth wickets and carried Hyderabad past 300. Vikramjeet Malik got both the half-centurions’ wickets, and ended with four.Alfred Absolem and Pragyan Ojha then took three early wickets, but Dogra and Mannu thwarted Hyderabad’s charge, setting up an interesting tussle for first-innings points on day three.
